 An
Englishman in Las Vegas
Introduction:
When
I first heard about the Toys and Games Inventors Forum
in Las Vegas (6th to 9th September 2001), I thought someone was joking.
They weren't. It really exists. Who am I to pass up the chance of a
"business" trip to Las Vegas? It's a shame that they
didn't choose a proper holiday destination but I suppose Las Vegas will
have to do. So business cards in one hand, sun tan oil and shades in the
other, I'm off to find out what this particular Englishman will make of
Las Vegas.
5th
September 2001:
After
a 16 hour trip, I finally arrive at Ballys Hotel,
Las Vegas in the evening. It's my first time in Las Vegas and I am
immediately struck by the vast amount of flashing lights everywhere, I
have never seen anything like it on this scale before. I briefly
consider the merits of giving up devising games in favour of a career as
a light bulb salesman in Las Vegas. I guess it's probably a pretty
static market, (sorry, I am very tired now and my sense of humour is wearing thin).
I
decide to find some food before going to bed. Downstairs at the hotel
and in a way that only Americans can manage, there is a reconstruction
of Paris complete with Eiffel Tower. To be honest, it doesn't look much
like Paris to me. I head for a brasserie where the "French"
menu includes a hamburger, which I order. At least the fries are French
and anyway, the service here is much better than I would expect in a
similarly priced restaurant in Paris.
Everywhere that I look, there is gambling of one kind or
another. The designers have thought of pretty much every way possible to relieve
me of my money. Unfortunately for them, I'm not the gambling sort. At
the end of the meal, the waiter takes my money and says "mousey".
For a split second I wonder if mousey is some new kind of gambling game
that I haven't yet discovered. Then I realise that it was an absolutely
horrible attempt to thank me in French. [merci]. I'm not yet sure if I'm
going to love Las Vegas or hate it but I feel confident that I won't
feel neutral about it by the end of the convention.
6th
September 2001:
The
convention starts at 9:00am today but I am up at an ungodly hour thanks
to the effects of the jet lag. I go down to a cafe in the casino area to
find a coffee. It's 5:45am and there are still lots of people gambling,
I think they must have been there all night. From the look on their
faces, they're losing. If there's this much money to be made out of
games in Vegas, I think maybe I should start thinking about designing
some new gambling games rather than my usual board games. Or maybe I
should think some more about
those lightbulbs? Hmmm. I need more coffee.....
5:30pm
now and I have had my first taste of the convention. My worst fears are
confirmed. I am going to have do some work. This isn't going to be quite
the holiday that I had hoped for.
Inventors
dominate this event but it seems to be reasonably well attended by
useful people to network with such as games manufacturers, reps, agents
and others who temporarily escape my memory.
The
atmosphere is informal and friendly, there is a good mix of experience
in the form of industry veterans and raw enthusiasm from the eager first
time inventors. The
veterans are injecting a healthy sense of realism into the event and it
is obviously becoming clear to some of the inventors that they need to
tweak their plans a bit. Well, rather a lot in some cases. Whilst most of the
inventors are aspirational wannabees, there are a handful who have hit
the big time. A spontaneous wave of applause rippled through the
convention hall when it was announced that one inventor attending had
sold her company for $6 million. I was taken aback by the applause, it
was a very un-British reaction somehow.
I
have just nipped back to my room (via the casino which is still full of
people losing their money in a countless number of ways) and am
preparing for a little social event tonight. My body, which is still
running on English time, is telling me that it's 1:30am now but here the
evening is young and cocktails and dinner beckon to mark the first night
of the convention. I'll be back with more soon, right now I urgently
need to find some more coffee to stop me slumping into a deep
slumber....
7th
September 2001:
So
the dinner went fine, I spent my time with some great folks who own
little games companies on this side of the pond. Everything went well
until coffee when the jet lag kicked in in a big way. I said big, I
meant huge. Feeling drugged and disoriented with the fatigue, I retired
to my room where infuriatingly, I couldn't sleep. The last thing I
remember about was the clock saying 5:30am and CNN telling me for the
umpteenth time about the Senator Gary Condit's unofficial, unannounced
but obviously firm decision to retire from politics. Talk about playing
games. Then the deep slumber finally hit me.
I
rejoined the convention around 10:30am having missed both some crucial
early morning activities and a free breakfast due to the unintended yet
inescapable lie in. Hey, this was supposed to be a holiday wasn't
it? Needless to say, I had to cross the casino to get to the convention and it was
still full of people happily parting with their hard earned money.
Yesterday I was becoming suspicious that half these people were stooges,
planted there by the casino owners to make it look like it was normal to
sit in front of a slot machine for hours on end. Today I had a close
look at their faces and I was reassured to see that there was no sneaky
stuff going on - just an endless pool of suckers and nutters all trying to get
poorer as quickly as possible. If reincarnation exists, I'm going to
come back as a slot machine - imagine it, all I would have to do is sit
there and people will just turn up and throw their money at me. Way to
go, as they say over here.
Back
to the convention where the wise and the worldly gave of their knowledge
in a series of lectures, discussions, panels and other verbal
communications whose various contrived titles I don't recall. Representatives
from Disney, Hasbro and other similarly well known companies covered all
kinds of business, legal and creative issues that probably aren't of
much interest to you lot but had the attendees dribbling for more. If
you happen to be a games inventor then this is definitely a good event for you
(provided you are strongly US focused) and
you'd also do well to take a look at the Discover
Games web site - they are deeply involved in all this
inventing stuff over here.
Free
of social engagements tonight, I face the choice of going back
downstairs to Paris or taking a trip over the road to ancient Rome or travelling to all manner of exotic
locations - without even leaving Las Vegas. It's a strange and unconvincing proposition but for now I'm happy to go with the flow and let
it
wash all over me. Wherever you live, whoever you are, it seems highly
likely that I will be
seeing you (or a funny looking copy of you) later this evening......
8th
September 2001:
I
ended up going on safari last night, having wandered into it without
quite realising what I was doing. I was standing in a hotel corridor and
happened to look to my left where, to my utter astonishment, there was a
tiger. A real one. I'm not quite sure what surprised me more, the tiger
or the fact that it wasn't a reproduction tiger. Anyway, it was a surreal experience, shortly to be
complimented by sightings of sharks, sting rays and other exotic fish
that you might not usually expect to find in the middle of a desert.
Las
Vegas has sprung up in the middle of a most inhospitable desert and from
any high vantage point in town (there are a lot of them!) you can see
starkly beautiful yet totally barren mountains all around. The heat
outside is intense and lacks humidity, so most people head inside to the
sanctuary of air conditioning during the midday sun (only to met by the
inevitable plethora of money losing opportunities). Yet these Spartan surroundings
seem to present few barriers to the extravagant whims of the hotel and
casino designers. The neighbouring hotel is set around a man-made lake
that covers perhaps three or four acres, possibly more. How they can be so wasteful with
so much precious water in the middle of a desert is the sort of question
that troubles Brits like me but obviously not the Yanks. At home we have
bans on hose pipe usage in the mildest of summers yet here, in the middle
of the desert, there doesn't seem to be any shortage of water. Tony
Blair may have a problem in the making here, if British gardeners knew
what was going on in Vegas, there could well be a revolution.
So
the convention started at 7am today and this time I made a huge effort
and turned up on time. Hardly anybody else did, including the guy I was
due to meet at 7:50am. Typical. He had come from Germany for the event
and I suspect he was struggling with the jet-lag thing too. Anyway, this
is getting ridiculous, who in their right mind schedules a meeting at
7:50am?
Things
were definitely beginning to wind down today. One spectacular lecture
from Sensory Inc had the audience popping with excitement about some of
the new technology possibilities for the toy and game world. We were
left convinced beyond doubt that the toys of tomorrow are going to be mind-bogglingly clever
things. When I say "clever", I mean
the toys themselves are clever rather than just being clever ideas. It's
an exciting, innovative and fun prospect to relish. I almost
wish I was a kid again. Cut the almost.
I
still don't think I'll leave Vegas feeling neutral about it. I've really
enjoyed seeing what it has to offer and I've also enjoyed the
convention.
Final
Thoughts:
I
saw something spectacular and truly impressive last night which I ought
to mention in the interest of balance. The hotel next door (the one with
the big lake outside) has a fountain show after dark. Set to music and
thoughtfully illuminated, dozens of jets of water spout high into the
sky in a wonderfully choreographed (and of course huge) display. If you
find yourself in Vegas, this is a must-see.
Every
single restaurant here in the middle of this desert seems to have shrimp
somewhere on the menu.
I
had a coffee by the Grand Canal in Venice today and some people went by
on a gondola. Not a cornetto in sight.
As
Las Vegas is a place where people go to have fun, I have been very
surprised indeed by how few people I have seen smiling, let alone
laughing. Most bizarre.
In
this foreign country that so loved Princess Di and absorbs so many
British ideas, nobody has whacked up a reproduction of London to cash in
on our great capital and heritage. Should I be relieved or insulted?
I
have given out a lot of business card but haven't touched the sun tan
oil.
I
finally gave in to the pressure. I gambled. $5. I lost the lot. I
smiled.
I'll
sign off with a bit of local jargon that I've learnt in the French
cafe: "Au Rev-waaa"
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